What Goes Around Comes Around! The Life Cycle of an Apple by Gillian Clifton

HOW ARE APPLE TREES LIKE COMPUTER PROGRAMS? 

 Apple trees, like all seed-producing plants, go through a life cycle. Their seeds are dropped inside their fruit to be eaten by animals who eat them, or are released as the fruit rots to reseed the plant in the next growing season. They grow into sprouts and then seedlings with leaves, gradually form bark for production, and grow until they are mature enough to make their own fruit with its own seeds to grow more and more apples with more and more seeds. Plant scientists call this the mighty and mysterious life cycle, through which all living things go.

The plant begins its life cycle, drops seeds, and dies. By dropping seeds, the plant starts the life cycle all over again. The cycle is like a loop that happens over and over.

Computer programmers use the concept of cycles to produce looping actions that also repeat a series of operations. But nature got there first, and when the perennial apple-picking season rolls around this year, Gillian Clifton's look at The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree: Over and over Again (Computer Science for the Real World) (Rosen Classroom, 2018), takes a a cross-the-curriculum look at the ability of apple trees to provide a perfect illustration of the scientific concept of looping. Clifton's language is simple, but with a poetry of its own, (downright cosmic, man) with generous color photographs of every step in the growing cycle, from a tender, almost transparent sprout to a seedling with a few mature leaves to a tree heavy with fruit in autumn, ending with the sweet and hand-sized apple that every child will know well, right down to its core with those dark seeds.

A tree lives in another way, too. When the tree dies, it returns its nutrients to the soil. From there new plants may grow. This life cycle loop happens for every apple tree you see!

As proper informational books do, Gillian Clifton's easy-to-read nonfiction book offers a brief appendix with glossary and index, along with a section of large-group and individual enrichment activities for teachers and parents. For more autumn fun with the life cycle, share this one with this season's other star, the pumpkin, here.

As Right As.... Apple Pie ABC by Aliso Murray

G   Get a taste for it!

H   Have to have a lick of it!

I     In trouble!

Pie is not the recommended daily diet for doggies, but when a crumb from the fresh-baked apple pie falls on the floor, the family canine does what dogs do! He laps it up and suddenly acquires a taste for the fruity pastry. In fact, he's downright Eager for it. When he attempts to Jump up upon the table to get a bigger bite, his little mistress decides he had to be removed from the scene, Kept out of temptation for his own good. She snatches him up, Leaves with him under her arm, and plops him in doggy time-out, still hungry and now, well, mighty Miserable!

But this Rover comes over, as he escapes from isolation and steals back to where the warm pie is cooling in the kitchen. Scooting Under the Table, he comes up with a way to get to the pie without giving away his Undercover approach. Stealthily the pup pulls on the edge of the tablecloth---slowly, Very slowly, until ....WHOOPS! The pie hits the floor and it's time for a quick eXit from the scene of the crime, but not without this pooch's pastry prize!  YUM!  Our pup is full and content and ready to find a hideaway in which to catch some...zzzZZZZZs!

Alison Murray's delectable doggy-cum-pie alphabet book,  Apple Pie ABC (Hyperion Press) is a delicious dissertation upon this delightful dessert.  Apple pie is awesome, amazing, and almost absolutely attractive, as we admit, and it's hard to blame this chow hound for giving in to apple pie mania as he makes his way through the alphabet.  More than just an alphabetical list of words, this charming little board book is great for predicting what letter, word, and action comes next and even serves as a beginning book for novice readers An A+ All-Around treat!

Pastry Practice: Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Paish

IT WAS A GLORIOUS AUTUMN AFTERNOON--THE PERFECT DAY TO RAKE LEAVES INTO PILE AND RUN AROUND THE YARD.

"FALL IS IN THE AIR!" SAID GRANDDAD.

"SO ARE THE BIRDS," SAID AMELIA BEDELIA.

Little Amelia points upward at the bright blue fall sky, where two flights of geese are soaring overhead, one in the classic V shape and a larger one in a double V.

"V.... W....? WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO SPELL?" SHE ASKED.

But before Granddad can begin to deal with this typical Ameliaism, Grandma sends the two on a mission to pick just the right fruit for one of her fresh apple pies. It's time for little Amelia to help make her first apple pie. "Be sure to pick up Granny Smith," she adds.

Amelia is happy to comply. She races off to beat Granddad to the car and trips and lands on one of their leaf piles.

"HOW WAS YOUR TRIP?" JOKES HER GRANDFATHER.

"FUN!" SAID AMELIA."FALL IS IN THE AIR AND ON THE GROUND!"

Amelia Bedelia is a little disappointed that they are not stopping for the mysterious Granny Smith on the way, but delighted when she finds herself, not at the supermarket, but at the farmer's market, surrounded by many varieties of apples--Royal Galas, Golden Nuggets, Pink Pearls, and Delicious--although Amelia insists that they all taste Delicious to her.

Back at home, Grandma and Little Amelia get busy, paring apples, sprinkling on flour, sugar, and spices, and rolling out the dough, and soon a large, juicy pie goes into the oven. While it bakes, Grandma takes a break in the parlor, but little Amelia decides to make her own pie. With the leftover dough, she rolls two small circles just like Grandma showed her and fits the crust into Grandma's intriguing miniature pastry dish. In go the apples and seasonings, and Amelia slips her secret creation into the back of the oven so that it will be a surprise when her mom and dad arrive for dinner.

Soon Grandma bustles in, takes her golden brown creation out of the oven, and sits it on the outside picnic table to cool while she puts the finishing touches on dinner. Amelia Bedelia sets the table.

"IT SOUNDS LIKE THE BIRDS ARE HAVING A PARTY, TOO!" SAID AMELIA BEDELIA.

"MY PIE!" EXCLAIMED GRANDMA.

IT WAS TOO LATE. "GONE!" SAID GRANDMA.

"I THINK THEY MUST HAVE BEEN SWALLOWS!" JOKED GRANDDAD.

As always, Amelia Bedelia comes through to save the day. Her little pie is doubly welcome when it comes out of the oven, and soon there is another empty pie plate in the kitchen.

Herman Parish's latest Amelia adventure, Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie (Greenwillow, 2010), joins the earlier books in the young Amelia series, Amelia Bedelia's First Valentine and Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School, as useful introductions to Peggy Parish's mistaken mistress of the homonym and homophone. Those wonderful peculiarities of the English language are a bit over the heads of Herman Parish's intended audience here, so he carefully sticks to puns like "trip" and "fall" that preschoolers and first graders will understand. As a read-aloud runup to a classroom unit on that staple of the autumn curriculum, apple trees and apple picking, this book adds to the many tasty apple books already out there. Pair this one with any of those, particularly The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson, reviewed here.

"Picky" Eaters: Max & Mo Go Apple Picking by Patricia Lakin

Max and Mo, those artsy classroom critters, are back in an autumn adventure--with apples!

It all begins when Max and Mo experience a bit of ennui in the eateries department. It seems that the "Big Ones" who feed them are stuck in a rut--it's corn, corn, and more corn, morning, noon, and night, day after day.

"NO MORE CORN!" they said.

Max scratched his chin. "How can we tell them?"

NEW FOOD! NEW FOOD! they shouted.

But nothing happened.

But all is not lost! Soon Max & Mo spot a note on the blackboard. "We went apple picking," it says, and soon the hamsters' tummies begin to rumble at the thought of the fresh apples and homemade applesauce that they know will follow. "I cannot wait!" said Max. "Let's go!" said Mo. The two hamsters quickly pick the latch on their cozy cage and begin to explore the classroom for apples. "Not here," said Mo, as he crawls inside a an old left-behind sneaker. But just then the kids begin to return from their field trip, arms loaded with just-picked apples, and to their delight, Max and Mo watch an apple drop from one student's arms and roll into their hiding place beneath a table.

When the school day is done, the two get busy sampling the left-behind goodies.

"Applesauce! Yum!" said Max,

"Apple bits! Yum!" said Mo

"We're apple picking!" they said.

But Max and Mo still have their beautiful dropped apple, and the two decide to split the bounty between them. Max grabs a knife and Mo holds the fruit steady and "Split," the apple pops apart and one half flips, cut-side down, and lands right in a dish of poster paint on the art room supply table.

"Splash! Lift! Flip!" The apple half falls, paint-side down, on a piece of art paper.

"We made an apple print!

More! More!" they cheered.

And the art room animals get busy making apple prints in all the colors in the paint box, and when the children return on their next school day, we know that their classroom will be decorated with wall-to-wall apple prints and two happy hamsters will be back in their cage, proud--and well fed!

Patricia Lakin's and Brian Floss's delightful little Max & Mo Go Apple Picking (Ready-to-Read. Level 1) provides a perfect tie-in for autumn apple picking field trips and classroom cooking and crafts activities, all in vocabulary well suited to the beginning reader. Appended are directions for making apple prints and short-and-sweet illustrated directions for making applesauce:

1. Wash!

2. Cut!

3. Pour (water in pan)!

4. Stir!

5. Mash!

6. Yum!

Pomona's Pick: Apples by Jacqueline Farmer

Author and illustrator Farmer and Tildes have collaborated on a book about America's favorite fruit which looks good enough to eat all by itself. With a jolly still life of a variety of apples on the front and a rustic bushel basket spilling its various apples invitingly on the back, this delicious nonfiction book is as hard not to pick up and sample as its subject.

Accompanied by soft and cheery drawings, the text clearly covers the science and craft of apple culture, including grafting techniques commonly used to cultivate market apples, tree care to ensure growth and full fruiting, the reproductive parts of the blossom and the role pollinators play in producing the development of fruit, and the ongoing cultivation which produces a bountiful harvest of this popular food.

Farmer also includes a table of the eight most popular apples--Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, McIntosh, Pink Lady, and Rome--which describes their flavor and uses. She also explains the difference between cider and apple juice and how to store and eat apples to get the maximum nutritional punch from the package.

My favorite section covers the history of apples, from their original cultivation in the Middle East, their refinement by the Greeks and Romans (Pomona was the Roman goddess of tree fruits) and the role apples have played in legend and symbolism. A version of the Old English aepple (originally the word for any tree fruit), the term is now applied only to the hundreds of varieties of the heritage and modern apple. Apples are closely bound up with American history, being planted by the Massachusetts colonists, who also imported European honeybees to pollinate them, by 1629. Farmer also tells how the real "Johnny Appleseed", John Chapman, and the Oregon Trail pioneers carried apple seedlings to plant all along their westward journeys.

Along with a traditional recipe for apple pie, Farmer's appendix, Apple Facts and Records, has some interesting surprises. For example, apples are 25 per cent air, which makes them float conveniently so that we (and earlier courting couples) can bob for them at fall parties. Another surprising fact--China is the world's leading apple grower, with 41 per cent of the world's crop. And who knew that Native Americans called the Pilgrim's apple-blossom-loving honeybees "white man's flies?"

For solid information for classroom units on botany, food products, or seasonal activities or as a tasty "snack" for young readers, this is one of the best books about apples around. For autumn story time or units, pair Apples with the author's Pumpkins and, for a slightly younger audience, Gail Gibbons' Apples for a seasonal treat. For an imaginative take on apple growing, join it with the Lauren Thompson's noted The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, reviewed here in my post of November 6, 2007.

Apple Pie for Breakfast: Down the Road by Alice Schertle

A book that begins with thoughts of eggs for breakfast and ends with apple pie instead, Alice Schertle's Down the Road shows the author's admirable ability to illuminate the human heart in gentle, softly humorous stories.

When Hetty's mama remarks that the local storekeeper's hens are laying, Papa admits to a hankering for fresh eggs for breakfast, and Hetty begs to be allowed to make her first solo shopping trip down the road to the nearby town. Equipped with a big wicker basket and coins in her pocket, she sets forth bravely, with plenty of advice from Mama and Papa:

"Twelve big beauties. No cracks," said Papa.

"Be sure to say thank you to Mr. Birdie." said Mama.

"Come straight home," said Papa.

"Don't dillydally," said Mama.

All goes well with Hetty's first trip until, nearly home, hot from the sun and getting tired, Hetty eyes a apple tree loaded with ripe fruit beside the road. She knew those apples. They have to be sweet, juicy and crackly crisp, and Hetty promises herself she'll only pick three and then go straight home. But when she reaches high for a Papa-sized apple, the basket tips and dumps its precious eggs, SPLAT!, on the ground, breaking them all.

Hetty can't bear the thought of telling Mama and Papa that she has failed her first mission. She climbs the tree as high as she can and hides there, giving in to sad feelings. Before long, however, a worried Papa comes along, looking for her, and soon knows the whole story. "There's no finer place than an apple tree to think things over," he says, and climbs up beside Hetty.

Before long, Mama comes down the road to see where everyone is, to find Hetty and Papa up the tree, sticky with juice from the apples they've eaten. Sizing up the situation, she climbs up into the tree beside them. "I'd almost forgotten how lovely the world looks from a tree," she says.

When the three continue down the road toward home, the basket, Mama's skirt, and Papa's pockets are full of apples, and the next morning, instead of fresh eggs, there is a fine apple pie for breakfast.

Schertle's sweet story of family life is perfectly matched with the wonderful paintings by E. B. Lewis which illustrate the story. Flooded with sunlight as Hetty walks down the hot dusty road, the illustrations of the cool darkness inside the small town store, the dappled shadows under the tree, and the cozy morning brightness of the family's kitchen all tell the story of parents who know well how to guide their child's feet down the road ahead.

Down the Road is a great family readaloud and a good story for the windup of an autumn unit or field trip in apple-picking time. It's a good reminder that sometimes an apple is more than an apple!

Life Cycle of an Apple Pie: The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson

These are the apples, juicy and red,

that went in the pie,

warm and sweet,

that Papa baked...

Lauren Thompson's recently published The Apple Pie That Papa Baked puts the humble apple pie in a cosmic framework in this delightfully nostalgic story of apple-picking time.

The story begins with a little girl wakening in her rustic farmhouse to the sound of a rooster's crowing and the happy sight of her father heading out to the orchard with his apple-picking ladder. Following him, the child catches up in time to spend the day together collecting apples, until the hungry pair return to share the making of a deliciously juicy apple pie.

Thompson's lyric text echoes the format of the traditional "This is the house that Jack built...." story as it takes a sweeping view of the earth's cycle of life which brings an apple pie to our table:

This is the world, blooming with life,
That spins with the sun, fiery and bright,
That lights the sky, wide and fair...

The text celebrates the water cycle which "drops the rain, cool and fresh" to water the roots of the crooked but strong tree which bears the fruit which yields a treat for the eye and, warm and sweet, for the child, her father, and us, too.

Jonathan Bean's 1940's-style illustrations, reminiscent of Helen Sewall's original illustrations for Wilder's "Little House" books, utilize a sepia and black palette and curving lines which evoke the cycles of the earth and sun perfectly.

This is a great book for reading aloud and a great seasonal book for teachers to read for those units on autumn and apples. Pair it with the Caldecott Honor book Rain Makes Applesauce, or the more recent The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall, and all you'll need is--the pie!